Fitness, Health and Sanity for Moms Over 40!

Kids… Eat your broccoli!

As hard as it is to fight your junk food urges, if you have kids, you probably know that getting Junior to make smart food choices is triple the challenge. It’d be excellent if you could just yell, “Hey, you! Eat your spinach!” But you can’t. As is the case when dealing with most aspects of a child’s life, it takes commitment, patience, and some serious cunning to steer them down the right path. We mothers, and fathers know this!! It’s darn hard to be a parent and getting our kids to eat “healthy” takes a lot of work but the good news is, it can be done!! Just see….

1. Portion control.
Digging into the entire box of goldfish crackers, or any other kid’s snack, is a bad idea. So it’s a good idea to empty out that box into smaller ziplock bags, for better portion control. Do this the moment the treats are pulled from the grocery store bags! This helps children understand what a healthy portion looks like. Meals and portion sizes have increased nearly 40 percent over the last decade. As parents, we have to teach our children that it’s not deprivation—it’s proper nutrition. I try to guide adults into using smaller plates. Why? Dinner plates are so big! They definitely do not help when trying to eat healthy portion sizes.. Most times, filling the entire plate, makes us think that’s proper portions… Wrong!!

2. Sneak in the whole grains.
Use whole-grain pasta and brown rice, but don’t tell your kids. They’ll never know the difference. No one, especially children, likes change when it comes to food. I like to use the “stealth” approach, i.e., fly low under the radar! When I switched my son from regular white rice to a healthier brown rice. I did it in stages. First, I added a little brown rice each time. Then before you knew it, I added more. Until he was eating brown rice and no more white. I even did this switch with pasta too! Replacing the enriched flour kind with whole grain pasta.. Sorry dad..! But how fantastic is that? The key is making the changes gradually and not making a big deal about them.

3. Lead by example.
If you’re giving your kids apples but you’re eating Snickers, it’s never going to work. Following a healthy diet needs to be part of the commitment of good parenting. Never use the “D” [“Diet”] word in front of children. When you do, and they see you eating healthy, they assume that healthy food is something you’re forced to eat as a punishment. Lead by example. Say, “Mommy is eating this for more energy and to be stronger.” You all see my son, so you know he knows that mommy likes to exercise. He exercises with me and he asks me all the time if what im eating is healthy. Because of my healthy eating, Im proud to say, he eats flounder, salads, almost all vegetables.. Don’t get me wrong, I eat the occasional treat, piece of cake or cheesesteak but I don’t say anything negative about what I’m eating. And as a child, I don’t expect my son to eat perfect all the time either, he’s just 4 so candy and sweets are a part of his eating. But there’s limits!! Plus, I do use positive comments about healthy food without reference to weight, such as “I feel so much stronger when I eat fruit or vegetables for a snack!” That works great on my son since he loves to hear the words big and strong.. And will ask if Firemen, Construction Workers and /or Doctors eat vegetables and fruits? My answer, yes they do! I don’t feel like I’m lying as Im sure there are workers who do eat fruits and vegetables!!

4. Make food fun.
Taste is something that changes over time. Our taste buds actually change as we age; this explains why some children will eat broccoli and green beans and others find the smell and taste worse than starvation! Continually introduce healthy food and find unique ways to introduce the food in stages. For example, your children might try a small amount of broccoli mixed in with their mac and cheese. Once you’ve gotten them to accept that as a regular staple, transition to broccoli with a creamy cheese soup or steamed broccoli. Eventually, your children may acquire a taste for it!! I loved that day for my son!! No more days of just chicken nuggets and French fries. But starting right out of the gates with a big plate of steamed broccoli in front of a child who doesn’t eat green things is asking for a battle! Baby steps!

Tricks to get your kids to eat better!

5. Don’t pressure kids to eat.
Present the food, but don’t force kids to eat it. Making demands will just polarize your kids, while letting them eat healthy foods on their own terms leads to healthy habits. If your first attempt doesn’t work, don’t take it personally or assume that this is a life-or-death situation. Take a deep breath, let it go, and try it again another day—try serving those healthy foods prepared in new ways. It often takes several times before your child will decide to try something new. Oh, and I don’t know if this works for everyone, but I find that my son will often try a new food with his father first before me.. So getting family members on board is key! And that doesn’t mean getting him to eat a hoagie or taco as that was how he first tried those foods too. With the hubby! But this way, I get both to eat healthy foods. Aha! And then I talk about the new foods he tried and see what he liked best about it, how it was cooked, etc.

6. Be careful what you say.
Everything a woman says about her body is like writing on the slate of her female and male child’s self-esteem. Watch what you say in front of the mirror. You would be surprised by what your child hears. My son once said, “I’m fat!” Or, “I have a big belly like daddy. Seriously! Not only do kids hear what you’re saying on the phone to your girlfriend or to yourself and they are projecting those negative images on themselves. It’s unhealthy for you and your young children to be thinking anything other than positive thoughts about this amazing body that God gave you and what you are doing it to change it.. Do your best to serve as a positive role model by speaking lovingly about your body and your journey to health!

7. Relax!
Food shouldn’t be a source of angst for your family. Try to get your kids to eat healthier, but be creative, consistent, and calm. The bigger you make the issue of eating healthy foods, the more resistance you may feel. Play it cool. There are many studies proving that you can place salad on the table 10 to 15 times before a child will decide to try it. Remember that “insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result.” If it didn’t work the first time, try a different approach, a new way to prepare and disguise the food, and, again, remember the importance of doing this in slow, small steps.

8. Get kids involved.
My son loves to help me cook! So I say, let them help cook meals and learn to read food labels. Teach them what’s too much sugar and what’s an appropriate amount of fat. Teach your older children what purpose carbohydrates serve in moderation and what they turn into when we eat them in excess. Pick one item and just find that on your labels. For example, this week my son and I have been talking about too much salt and have been looking at the sodium content on labels. He gets a kick out of picking out healthier choices and knowing he’s eating healthy just like mommy! Food shouldn’t be a mystery. I meet adults every day who have no idea how much sodium, carbs, or protein they should be consuming, let alone how many calories. Let’s create a more educated generation when it comes to food!

9. Think daily.
Young children have shifts when they are hungry. A child will not starve himself or herself. We are so focused on eating huge portions three times a day, but naturally, most children will eat one full meal and graze at other meals. Avoid the bad habit of saying, “One more bite,” or, “Clean your plate.” These phrases teach our children that they are good if they eat more, when what we want to teach our children is to respond to their bodies when they feel full. Young children eat to provide themselves with energy. Eating to soothe sadness, eating to stuff ourselves, or eating because it’s simply that time of the day are all bad habits we pass along to our children.

10. Read up or learn more about nutrition.
Read books about food. Explain where it comes from. I highly recommend Eat This Not That! for Kids!: Be the Leanest, Fittest Family on the Block! It has giant pictures of common kid foods. It’s fun to make a game out of learning which foods are best! Also, check out MyFitnessPal.com, which lists the calories for most every food you can imagine, not to mention the nutritional information for nearly every restaurant in America!

Finally, don’t go overboard. Remember children are children and still love chocolate, gummy worms, Swedish fish, etc.. But just adding a few healthy foods to their diet can make a world of a difference!

So, what tricks have you used to help get your kids to eat healthy or make better choices? I’d love to hear from you!

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